whichever way you look at it...

this is a (Kindle) bargain:


For the Fame of God's Name (essays in honour of John Piper)


27 essays for £5.97 = 22p per essay!

the great albums (xiv) - innervisions

Stevie Wonder was a regular part of my Radio 1-filled days back in the 70s. I liked some of his singles a great deal; others were just ok. Always a good tune. But he never really figured for me in terms of albums (unsurprisingly, I wasn't buying albums when he was making his most celebrated ones).

So I'm late to the party - but I'm really glad I made it. Especially for the sake of Innervisions. It's got great tunes, anger that is gritty and righteous anger and a shot of (somewhat unfocussed) hope. The kind of album you don't play for ages and, when you give it a spin, wonder why on earth you haven't.

the blue nile

Only 4 albums in 26 years (so far). And, as far as I can see, no vast reservoir of bootlegs to expand the canon. Which means that in The Blue Nile you have a band that is manageable; compassed and defined. But the music on those 4 albums just won't be constrained: its emotional range and musical delicacy defies you to try.


Well I, for one, won't.


A Walk Across The Rooftops
Hats
Peace At Last
High

skinny river

If you had to cut-down Springsteen's sprawling double-album, The River, what would you keep and what would you ditch? And how would the survivors line up?

Here's my version of a skinny River.

the power of a rhetorical question

Whilst reflecting on the life and ministry of Francis Schaeffer, Martin Downes asks a rhetorical question that reminded me just how powerfully they can be deployed: noting that Schaeffer's ministry was largely undertaken in obscurity, Martin asks,

How did we ever get into the mess of thinking that the best men to follow are easy to spot because they occupy the biggest platforms?

No answer needed.